"How can it be so high?"
Robert's first reaction was disbelief, but he quickly came around.
Hypersonic flight brings not only high ticket costs but also significant time savings.
A past trip took at least sixteen hours, while a supersonic airliner needs only three to four hours; the time saved could allow for several more flights, naturally increasing the profit per aircraft.
Seeing this, the economic feasibility of supersonic airliners was definitely not an issue, which left the problem of noise pollution.
"What about the sonic booms? How do they plan to deal with public protests?"
Jim didn't have an answer to that but, after thinking for a moment, came up with a clever response:
"In China, there are so many hypersonic aircraft flying around now, and they don't seem to have been stumped by this issue.
However, if we could really facilitate the lifting of bans on supersonic airliners, it would be beneficial for SSTO and SR91 as well.
